This Boston Celtics trivia quiz has 80 free questions with answers and runs the length of the franchise: Walter Brown founding the team in 1946, Red Auerbach's cigar-lit dynasty, the eight straight titles of the Bill Russell years, the Bird-McHale-Parish Celtics of the 1980s, the 2008 Big Three, and the 2024 team that finally raised Banner 18. Expect questions on retired numbers and the parquet floor, the Lakers rivalry from the 1959 sweep to the Heat Game, franchise-changing trades and draft picks, and the odd detail that separates a casual fan from a Garden lifer, like which Celtic spent a day driving a Boston taxi. Every answer was checked against primary and encyclopaedic sources before it went in, so you can argue about the ones you miss with confidence. Play it solo, or use it as a ready-made round for your next Celtics watch party or bar trivia night.
30 of 80 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many NBA championships had the Boston Celtics won as of their 2024 title?
18
Banner 18 came in 2024 and broke a tie with the Lakers, who sat on 17.
Q 02Which Boston Garden-Arena Corporation president founded the Celtics in 1946?
Walter A. Brown
Brown was so unimpressed by the Cousy pick a few years later that he said he 'could have fallen to the floor.'
Q 03In 1950 the Celtics became the first NBA franchise to draft a Black player. Who was he?
Chuck Cooper
Cooper, a forward from Duquesne, was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2019.
Q 04Which future star of the TV western The Rifleman was an original member of the 1946 Celtics?
Chuck Connors
Connors also played Major League Baseball for the Dodgers and Cubs before turning to acting.
Q 05Cousy landed in Boston through a 1950 dispersal draft after which franchise went bankrupt?
Chicago Stags
Auerbach had passed on the local Holy Cross star in the draft, calling him 'too flashy.'
Q 06To get the 1956 pick used on Russell, the Celtics traded Ed Macauley and Cliff Hagan's rights to which team?
St. Louis Hawks
The Hawks got their revenge briefly, beating Boston in the 1958 Finals before losing to them in 1957, 1960 and 1961.
Q 07What did the Celtics owner reportedly promise Rochester so Russell would slide to No. 2 in 1956?
A visit from the Ice Capades
Walter Brown also owned the Ice Capades, so a lucrative skating booking was his to give.
Q 08Which Celtic won the 1957 NBA Rookie of the Year award over teammate Bill Russell?
Tom Heinsohn
Heinsohn capped his rookie year with 37 points and 23 rebounds in the double-overtime Game 7 of the Finals.
Q 09How many consecutive NBA championships did the Celtics win from 1959 to 1966?
8
No other team in the four major U.S. pro leagues has matched the streak.
Q 10The Celtics' 1959 title came via the first sweep in NBA Finals history, over which team?
Minneapolis Lakers
Cousy predicted the sweep and delivered 51 assists, still a record for a four-game Finals.
Q 11When Russell succeeded Auerbach on the bench in 1966, what milestone did he set?
First Black head coach in U.S. pro sports
Auerbach reportedly made him player-coach partly as a ploy to keep the restless star interested.
Q 12Who filled in on December 26, 1964, giving the Celtics the NBA's first all-Black starting five?
Willie Naulls
Boston won that game 97-84 over St. Louis and then won 11 more in a row with Naulls starting.
Q 13Whose 1965 radio call 'Havlicek stole the ball!' did the NBA dub the best-known in basketball?
Johnny Most
Q 21The 1980 draft-day trade that brought Parish and the pick used on McHale to Boston was with which team?
Golden State Warriors
Boston gave up two first-round picks and got two Hall of Famers, one of the most lopsided deals ever.
Q 22Who was named Finals MVP when the Celtics beat Houston for the 1981 championship?
Cedric Maxwell
'Cornbread' Maxwell was later traded for Bill Walton and became a Celtics radio broadcaster.
Q 23Roughly how hot was it inside Boston Garden during the 1984 Finals 'Heat Game'?
97 °F
Oxygen tanks were provided to exhausted Lakers players; Bird scored 34 anyway.
Most called Celtics games on radio for 37 years and won the Hall of Fame's Curt Gowdy Media Award in 1993.
Q 14Who is the Celtics' all-time leading regular-season scorer?
John Havlicek
Havlicek's 26,395 points came over 16 seasons, many of them as the league's most famous sixth man.
Q 15Which NFL team drafted Celtics swingman Havlicek in 1962 and briefly tried him at wide receiver?
Cleveland Browns
He was also drafted by the ABL's Cleveland Pipers, so all three of his 1962 suitors were on Lake Erie or Boston.
Q 16Which Celtics center spent a day in 1977 driving a Boston taxi cab, going largely unrecognized?
Dave Cowens
The 1973 MVP said he got decent tips; nobody knew who he was once the cap went on.
Q 17The triple-overtime Game 5 of the 1976 Finals at Boston Garden came against which team?
Phoenix Suns
Gar Heard's turnaround jumper forced the third overtime before Boston finally pulled away.
Q 18With which overall pick did the Celtics select Larry Bird in 1978, a full year before he suited up?
6th
Auerbach gambled that Bird's potential was worth waiting a year while he finished at Indiana State.
Q 19Bird's then-franchise-record 60-point game in March 1985 came against which opponent?
Atlanta Hawks
The mark stood alone until Jayson Tatum tied it with 60 against San Antonio in 2021.
Q 20Nine days before Bird's 60, which teammate had set the Celtics single-game scoring record with 56 points?
Kevin McHale
McHale's record lasted just over a week before Bird passed it.
Q 24The 'Beat L.A.!' chant began in 1982 when Boston fans urged which team, about to eliminate the Celtics, to win it all?
Philadelphia 76ers
The 76ers lost that Finals to the Lakers anyway, but the chant spread to arenas across every sport.
Q 25Which Celtics reserve went 11-for-11 in the 1985 'Memorial Day Massacre' win over the Lakers?
Scott Wedman
Boston won 148-114, then lost four of the next five games and the series.
Q 26The 1985-86 Celtics set an NBA record, later tied by the Spurs, with how many regular-season home wins?
40
That team went 67-15 overall and is often called the best in franchise history.
Q 27Which former league MVP won Sixth Man of the Year with the 1986 champion Celtics?
Bill Walton
He is the only player to own a regular-season MVP, a Finals MVP and a Sixth Man award.
Q 28Len Bias, Boston's No. 2 pick in 1986, starred at which university before dying two days after the draft?
Maryland
Celtics scout Ed Badger had compared the two-time ACC Player of the Year to Michael Jordan.
Q 29The pick used on Bias had come from Seattle in a 1984 trade for which Celtics guard?
Gerald Henderson
Henderson's steal in Game 2 of the 1984 Finals had helped win a title just weeks before he was dealt.
Q 30Reggie Lewis, whose No. 35 was retired after his 1993 death, played college ball at which Boston school?
Northeastern
Northeastern's Matthews Arena was also the Celtics' first home in 1946.